Sound

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends Headphones have become an integral part of our lives. That’s especially the case as we rely on things like Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) to block out the massive amounts of noise that we deal with on a daily basis, especially if you live in a bustling, metropolitan city. Luckily, even though headphones tend to be quite expensive, there are a lot of great Memorial Day sales going on where you can pick up great headphones, like the Sony WH-1000XM5, for a relatively cheap price. In fact,…

Dyson’s air care appliances are among its most iconic products, with designs – most notably the brand’s bladeless loop fans – and price tags that set them apart from competitors. Its most recent range featured multifunctional air purifiers with formaldehyde detection and removal, including the Purifier Hot+Cool Formaldehyde and the Purifier Humidify + Cool Formaldehyde, both of which we were impressed with when we tested them. Dyson has retained the anti-formaldehyde technology but redesigned almost everything…

Z2 Comics has released a number of critically-acclaimed graphic novels from cartoonist and musician Dave Chisholm over the past few years, from the music-themed fiction GN Enter the Blue to the graphic biography of iconic trumpeter Charlie Parker Chasin’ The Bird. Now Chisholm will bring the life of another trumpeter to the comics page, as Z2 has announced Miles Davis and the Search for the Sound. Created in partnership with Davis’s family, the book tells the story of four decades in Parker’s life as he discovers and…

Spring is a good time to get yourself a new Bluetooth speaker, as the approaching warm weather is good reason to take your music outdoors. Insignia’s Mini Sonic portable Bluetooth speaker is going for just $30 at Best Buy today, which is a savings of $10 from its regular price of $40. It has a ton of stellar reviews, and while the excitement around the speaker seems to lead to plenty of typos, it’s easy to get the gist of what people are saying about it. User BestBuyIsAwesome says, “Love the Insignia speaker. Great…

Nurturing a forest ecosystem back to life after it's been logged is not always easy. It can take a lot of hard work and careful monitoring to ensure biodiversity thrives again.But monitoring biodiversity can be costly, intrusive, and resource-intensive. That's where ecological acoustic survey methods, or "ecoacoustics", come into play.Indeed, the planet sings. Think of birds calling, bats echolocating, tree leaves fluttering in the breeze, frogs croaking, and bush crickets stridulating. We live in a euphonious theatre of…

Amid much grief in his personal life, Ed Sheeran created his heart-wrenching sixth studio album, Subtract. His acoustic opener, Boat, particularly shines through with lyrics that are telling of the pain he encountered as he feared for the wellness of his loved ones. The man with the guitar lets his voice and guitar take charge in this rendition as he speaks of holding on to hope when there’s little to hold on to. Sheeran may be the most bankable star in the music industry for the last few years, but his…

Technics is updating its range of true wireless earbuds with two new models, one of which bears the weighty promise of carrying the company’s “greatest sound quality ever.” That’s the slogan tied to the flagship EAH-AZ80, which packs new 10mm, free-edge aluminum diaphragms. That kit, so we’re told, will extend its high and low-frequency response while, at the same time, cutting out unwanted resonance and distortion. The new diaphragm is the one major difference between the new flagship AZ80 and its junior sibling, the…

There’s a certain look to Bluetooth speakers that pervades product pages everywhere. You know the kind of thing: A long beer can covered with fabric, with a couple of buttons placed across the top. Sometimes there’s even a lanyard so that you can strap it to a bag. They all look like this – with a couple of exceptions.The Harman Kardon Onyx 8 could never be pegged with looking like everything else. Like a weird, flat planet, the large portable Bluetooth speaker becomes a centerpiece of almost any space you put it in,…

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Wednesday, May 17. An experiment is gaining momentum in the Golden State and elsewhere in the U.S. to see how workers and the companies that employ them fare with a four-day workweek.Times business reporter Samantha Masunaga visited two such California-based businesses to ask workers how the experiment is going for them. One was the Oakland-based ThredUp, though the experiment is limited to its salaried corporate employees, which make up 15% of the…

Today Samsung has announced a very interesting new update for the Galaxy Buds2 Pro. This will be rolling out in the coming weeks, and it brings enhanced ambient sound volume for people who are hard of hearing. The Ambient Sound feature will gain two additional levels, thus now offering a total of five levels of amplification and "providing the benefit of improved hearing to even more users", according to the Korean company. The efficacy of the new Ambient Sound feature was proven through a clinical trial undertaken…